BOSTON, Mass. -- Lefties have barely touched Joe Smith this season. They've owned him in the past, but not this year.

Baseball, however, is a game of evening out. Wednesday night, it evened out against the side-arming Smith and the free-falling Indians in a 4-3 loss to Boston at Fenway Park.

Jacoby Ellsbury, for the second straight night, beat the Indians with a walk-off hit. On Tuesday it was an RBI single through the middle off Vinnie Pestano with one out in the ninth. Wednesday night he hit one quite a bit farther, pounding Smith's 0-1 pitch into the center-field bleachers with two out in the ninth to drop the Indians four games behind Detroit in the AL Central.

It's the Tribe's biggest deficit of the season.

Left-handers were hitting .091 (4-for-44) against Smith when he entered the ninth with the score tied at 3. He retired righties Darnell McDonald and Marco Scutaro on grounders, but Ellsbury, the lefty, was waiting for him.

"I threw a slider for a first-pitch strike," said Smith. "I threw a fastball on the second pitch and he hit a homer."

It was the first homer Smith (2-2) has allowed to a lefty this year.

"In years past, I've gotten behind lefties," said Smith, who entered the game with a 1.06 ERA. "This year I've been getting ahead of them and that's helped a lot. Tonight I got ahead of him and he beat me.

"It happens. If I face him again, I'll go right after him again."

The good Carlos Carrasco gave the Indians a solid start Wednesday. With a six-game suspension waiting at the end of his outing and his rotation spot uncertain after David Huff's impressive three-game performance, Carrasco threw his best game since late June.

"I'll probably drop my appeal and start serving my suspension on Thursday," said Carrasco, who allowed two earned runs with six strikeouts in seven innings.

MLB suspended Carrasco and fined him for throwing at the head of Kansas City's Billy Butler in a 12-0 loss last Friday to Kansas City.

The Indians have lost eight of their last 11 games and 14 of 21. Since they were 30-15 with a seven-game lead in the AL Central on May 23, they've gone 24-39. Overall, they've dropped from 30-15 to 54-54.

"I don't think this thing is getting away from us with two months to play," said manager Manny Acta. "I'll feel it's getting away from us when we're four games out with three games to play. How's that?"

The win went to Jonathan Papelbon (4-0), who retired the Indians in order in the ninth.

Ezequiel Carrera ruined Tim Wakefield's bid for 200 wins when he doubled home Lonnie Chisenhall with two out in the seventh to erase Boston's 3-2 lead. Wakefield, 45, was replaced by lefty Randy Williams. Chisenhall opened the inning with a double off the Green Monster in left. Carrera doubled into the right-field corner.

Boston took a 3-2 lead in the fourth when David Ortiz scored as Scutaro ran his way out of a inning-ending double play on a grounder to short. Carrasco walked Ortiz to start the inning and Carl Crawford doubled him to third. Carrasco struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia and intentionally walked left-handed hitting Josh Reddick to load the bases so he could face Scutaro. He had Scutaro down in the count 0-2, but couldn't put him away.

The Red Sox scored first, taking a 2-0 lead in the first. Carrasco retired the first two batters, but Adrian Gonzalez singled and Kevin Youkilis blooped a double into short right. Ortiz lined a single to left as Gonzalez scored and Youkilis came home on Austin Kearns' error.

Rookie second baseman Jason Kipnis made it 2-1 with a leadoff homer in the fourth. It was Kipnis' fourth homer in as many games. The last Indians rookie to do that, according to Elias, was Al Rosen from June 8-11, 1950.

"It's nothing I would have predicted. It's nothing I could have guessed would happen," said Kipnis. "I'm just starting to come down on the ball more. I'm taking better swings at better pitches in better counts.

"As enjoyable as these are, it doesn't mean too much if we don't get the W."

Asdrubal Cabrera followed Kipnis with a single and scored to tie the game when Travis Hafner bounced a double over first base.

Wakefield allowed three runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two on 99 pitches.

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